UNDER THE DOME - THE BLOG: Cannella's 'revenge porn' bill advances in Assembly

Aug. 27, 2013

Written by

Under the Dome - The Blog

A bill which would make it illegal for you to post lewd images or video of former lovers on the Internet is marching quickly through the state Assembly this week.

The so-called “revenge porn” legislation, Senate Bill 255 by state Sen. Anthony Cannella (R-Ceres) was unanimously approved Tuesday by the Assembly Public Safety Committee, according to Cannella spokesman Jeff Macedo.

The next hurdle for the legislation -- which is quickly picking up a lot of media attention (including a piece Tuesday by Los Angeles Times columnist Patt Morrison) -- is the Assembly’s Appropriations Committee on Friday.

SB 255 has already successfully cleared the state Senate.

Macedo notes that the ACLU, which was concerned the bill might be used to censor free speech, formally dropped its opposition this week.

SB 255 would make it a misdemeanor for any person to photograph or record the image of another person who is in a state of full or partial undress in an area where the person has a reasonable expectation of privacy – without his or her consent – and then post those recorded images to the Internet or otherwise publicly disseminate them.

Cannella has said publicly that he introduced the bill after being approached by a constituent dismayed that an ex shared photos that "were intimate in nature.”